Running Node.js on a Raspberry Pi

Sector67 member Monty spent way too much time setting up a Raspberry Pi to run Node.js (which happens to include a handy serial library to enable webserver level Arduino communications) to be overlooked:

My local hackerspace Sector67held a 24 hour build fest this weekend. Late last week in preparation for the event a few of us purchased some Raspberry Pi‘s. If you’re not familiar with the Pi, it’s a credit card sized ARM based computer with a USB port, Ethernet port, GPU, HDMI and Composite video out that runs Linux for about $35. You can read more about it at the link above but the “overall real world performance is something like a 300MHZ Pentium 2, only with much, much swankier graphics.”

I bought 2 with the plan to install nodejs on them. I figured it’d be a super cheap way to create a web based controller people could use in other projects. I’m happy to say it only took me about 3 days to make this a reality. However it was pretty much 3 days of frustration that I’d like to keep the rest of you from having to experience so here’s the scoop.